Active Sex Life Ups Prostate Cancer Risk for Young Men

Jan 28, 2009

Men, having more active sex lives at younger age, are at increased risk of developing prostate cancer, a new study suggests.

The study conducted at the Nottingham University, UK included 800 men with half of all participants, diagnosed with prostate cancer. All the men were questioned about their sex life: the frequency of sex, including masturbation from teenage years, the number of sexual partners and the history of sexual infections if they had any.

The results of the study showed that 40 percent of men, diagnosed with prostate cancer, reported to have sex or masturbated 20 times or more in their 20s if compared to 32% of men without prostate cancer.

Almost 40 percent of men in prostate cancer group said they had 6 sex partners or more at younger age compared to about 30 percent of men in non-cancer group.
The differences between two groups became less pronounced for older men, meaning that the prostate cancer risk and sexual activity link was prominent for younger men.

Dr Polyxeni Dimitropoulou, the leading author of the study, said that the higher risk of prostate cancer for more sexually active younger men can be explained by the increased levels of sex hormones. It is known that one of the common treatment for men having prostate cancer is to reduce the hormone level that may contribute to cancer cells growth.

Obviously, the findings show that having active sex life in older age do not increase the prostate cancer risk.